Lucius Malfoy's Downfall
by TriumphV8
Summary: Follow Lucius and his family as their lives fall apart. Set during Deathly Hallows.
1. Preface

The past year had been a horrendous experience for Lucius Malfoy, locked in a bleak cell in Azkaban, he thought his life over but at least felt safe from the torture of the Dark Lord. That was, until Lord Voldemort came for him and many other followers and decided that the new Death Eater headquarters was within Lucius' own home.

Lucius realised this was coming to a point that one side would be victorious and he was powerless as to who would win. Life had been made into hell on earth for Lucius and his family, the Dark Lord not content with regularly torturing Lucius, he had now turned upon his son, Draco and branded him with the Mark. Initially Lucius wanted to do anything to stop Draco getting the Dark Mark even if it meant sacrificing himself but, the more Lucius thought about it, the more he realised, he'd never be enough to stop the Dark Lord from pursuing Draco. After he informed his wife that Draco would have to play along she decided to take it upon herself to stop Draco being branded, fortunately Lucius was able to stop her, god only knows what Voldemort would have done to his wife for defying him.

Their fate would only be decided, after the war was over. Lucius knew the Dark Lord was only keeping he and his family alive to exploit them if he won. To create a new society, after battle, money needed to be spent and Lucius knew his family would be safe so long as they had the funds to pay for this new society.

Whilst the money they had would keep their family for many, many generations to come, the Malfoy fortune could not build a whole new society, so it didn't look like they'd stay alive long, nor did Lucius fancy his chances living in poverty. All of which left Potter as the other option, Lucius had no idea how he could stop himself landing in Azkaban if Potter won but he suspected if he could, it would involve not fighting for the Dark Lord. Well, being wandless, that wasn't exactly hard, was it? And it probably involved money as well. Luckily, he couldn't see Potter taking everything he had and leaving him without a home to live in but he couldn't be so sure.

All he did know was that; after the battle had been decided, things would never be the same again. He could only hope that he and his family could stay alive through this.

Narcissa had got much stronger over the past year and Lucius felt he barely knew his wife anymore, she was not the shy and timid girl he had married all those many years ago, mind you he barely knew himself. Wandless, powerless and scared for his life, Lucius Malfoy had changed.


	2. Nightmares

"Tilly, pour me another glass, please." Lucius politely asked his personal elf to pour him yet another glass of wine, it seemed to be the only way to get away from the horrors these days.

"Master, tilly thinks master should go to bed, sir, you have had a lot to drink and Tilly thinks Master should get some sleep" the elf quivered at the thought of telling her Master what to do but she felt compelled to not let Lucius get into the state of drunkeness he found himself in last night.

"When I tell you what to do, you do it, without question, is that clear, Tilly?" Lucius didn't need to threaten the elf, they knew their place in this household but no sooner had he told the elf to pour him another glass of wine, his head started spinning and he felt rather sick. "On second thoughts, take me to bed Tilly, I need to lie down"

Tilly transported Lucius to the master bedroom of Malfoy Manor, and lay him on the left hand side of the four poster bed Narcissa was sat reading on. Lucius, after being placed by Tilly next to his wife, looked at her. How did they get into this, he wondered, how did it get this bad?

"Lucius, you've been drinking again, haven't you?" Narcissa Malfoy was extremely concerned about her husband, he'd changed since he'd got out of Azkaban, he'd become almost helpless. Slowly, Lucius answered his wife with a stern "Yes."

"Darling, you cannot carry on like this. Lucius, listen to me, things will sort themselves out eventually. We will be alright." Just how dare she, Lucius thought.

"We are not alright, Narcy. We are far from alright. He's..." Lucius stammered his last word and stopped talking suddenly. Narcissa turned to find her husband was softly crying. Lucius Malfoy, crying, if this had been a few years back no one could have possibly believed it but now Lucius Malfoy was nobody, infact, he was a wandless prisoner in his own home.

While he had been in Azkaban, Narcissa had to be strong for Draco's sake and she had to admit she made a good head of the family. Strong, dependable, caring yet formidable, it suited her and she was ashamed to admit with her husband locked away she had grown as a person. Lucius had also changed, his arrogance, quite literally knocked out of him. His proud stance and unmistakeable Malfoy sneer had all but gone, he was no longer the dominant force in the Malfoy family.

During his stay in Azkaban; Lucius had seen many horrors and had been physically and mentally tortured. The guards thought it hilarious to have the once powerful Lucius Malfoy begging them to be merciful to him. As a result, Lucius realised what he had done in the past and found himself feeling guilty for belittling others, he had come to develop quite a conscience.

After Voldemort had released Lucius taking him back to Malfoy Manor, the former head of the Malfoy family started to feel a little better, he was home and knew his wife and son were alive and well. Although he knew all too well that Voldemort was displeased with him.

"Lucius, you listen to me, we will be alright, we can get through this, we are Malfoy's and no one treads all over us and gets away with it." Narcissa was feeling brave and decided to carry on her lecture to Lucius. "but you cannot let anything get you like this, Lucius. Drinking our cellar dry isn't the answer to your nightmares. Nor is ignoring Draco and I."

"Draco" Lucius whispered to himself. He'd destroyed that boy. His own son, he himself too pathetic to protect his only son from danger. He failed, Lucius Malfoy was a failure who almost got his son killed too. By now his tears were running into his slightly unkept blonde hair. There was no point in denying the fact he was broken, now. His wife knew, his son knew, his Master knew, after all there was no other reason for his taking Lucius' wand.

Lucius Malfoy, one of the wandless, practically useless to the wizarding world. Was it really any wonder he'd took to sitting in his study, door locked, drinking his collection of fine wines that he should have been enjoying with friends at dinner parties. Besides, it took the edge off the excruciating pain that his so-called "Master" decided to put him through every couple of days. Thinking about this and after composing himself a little, Lucius turned to his wife and began to speak, his voice thick with emotion.

"I love you, Narcy and you know that you and Draco mean the world to me. I feel awful, guilty that I've put you two through hell this past year. I'm not a drunk, Narcissa. It just helps me to sleep and takes the edge from the pain he puts me through, when Severus isn't available with his potions."

"Then let us help you, Lucius. Let us be with you and spend time as a family." It was now Narcissa's turn to let herself shed a tear. "We don't know how long we can spend time together, we are at least at home and have some time on our own, without him, let us come for a walk around the grounds with you. Let us be with you."

The couple held onto one and other as they both wept, Narcissa starting to fall to sleep in Lucius' arms. Lucius was sleepy too and was starting to get used to having the nightmares that lay ahead. He spoke softly and so quietly he could only just be heard to a dozy Narcissa "Take care of me, Narcy. I love you more than you could ever know and I'm so, so sorry."


	3. Good Wife

"Crucio"

The Dark Lord cackled as Lucius was screaming in agony, the pain was unbearable and presented itself as if he was being rolled in shards of broken glass. His terror filled screams meant he didn't notice that Voldemort was using what was once Lucius' own wand against him. After a few minutes Voldemort called an end to this torture and Lucius felt relived as he sat up against his dungeon wall trying to regain his breath.

"Now Malfoy it is time for you to watch your family die" Voldemort cackled again when Lucius grabbed the hem of his Masters robes and begged him not to hurt his family as Narcissa and Draco, both bound and gagged were brought into the room.

Voldemort taunted Lucius' family while Lucius sobbed and begged his Master to just kill him instead.

"I want to watch you, Lucius. Watch your pathetic, stupid features crumble as your family dies, it'll be the most amusing thing I've witnessed all year, Lucius. But don't think I won't have my fun with them first" The Dark Lord pointed Lucius' wand at Narcissa and said calmly "Crucio."

Suddenly, Lucius' eyes were wide open and he was practically hyperventilating. This same nightmare had been happening ever since he got locked up in Azkaban but it didn't get any easier to deal with. He was always so afraid that Lord Voldemort would torture and kill his family because his Master knew nothing could harm Lucius more than his family being hurt. He'd often been told in Death Eater meetings that he was weak for loving his wife and son so much but Lucius reasoned to himself he'd rather be weak and have loved than be strong and never felt what true love felt like. Sat up in his own bed with Narcissa by his side, he knew he was so lucky to have her. She was sleeping peacefully with not a care in the world as he contemplated waking her to comfort him. He was thankful that his wife didn't suffer the terrible night terrors that he did and decided not to be so selfish as to wake her.

Sitting wide awake, he considered calling Tilly to bring him a large measure of brandy in the hope the alcohol would calm his frayed nerves and nurse him back to sleep. However, he remembered what Narcissa had said, she was right, he needed to stop drinking so much before he really did become dependent on it. So instead of disturbing the house elf, he lay back down and gently held Narcissa, who didn't wake at all, she had always been a heavy sleeper, Lucius thought to himself as he eventually managed to fall asleep once more.

Lucius woke to a gentle voice calling his name softly. Narcissa. He couldn't help but smile at his wife, a caring, genuine smile that so very rarely graced Lucius Malfoy's pale features in public.

"Lucius, you didn't wake me last night, did you have a full nights sleep yourself?" Narcissa's concern for his wellbeing had never waned over all these years of marriage.

"I woke once but got back to sleep again, before you ask not with the help of a drink, either." Lucius could see the look on his wife's face when he said he woke during the night, she thought he'd been downstairs to his study, after the nightmare to drink himself back to sleep. He could see it in her eyes.

Narcissa felt glad that he'd took her advice, the last thing this family needed was Lucius trying to drink himself into an alcohol induced coma each night. "Why don't we go and have breakfast, I believe we will be alone today and Draco is home for the weekend, too."

Weakly Lucius said "Draco, my only son" and smiled a sad smile to himself.

Draco had not been able to stop showing some anger towards his father, since he'd come back home. Of course Draco loved his father but he'd been through so much this past year, due to Lucius' own failures.

The smaller dining room table had been set up ready for breakfast by the elves . Draco was waiting for his parents to arrive, wishing he was back in Hogwarts for breakfast which was always the most delightful Full English affair. At home, though, they had a small continental breakfast, unless it was Sunday.

Lucius and Narcissa entered the room together arm in arm and Lucius, ever the gentleman pulled Narcissa's seat out for her before sitting down himself. Draco could never fail to be impressed how chivalrous his father was even in these times.

Over breakfast Lucius asked Draco about school. Draco answered that as usual he was doing badly in Transfiguration and only doing averagely in everything but Potions and History of Magic, expecting his father to berate him over his school grades, as usual.

"Professor Snape speaks very highly of you, Draco. I always struggled with Transfiguration as well, you'll get there, don't worry and just keep working at it, Draco." Lucius smiled that genuine smile once again as Draco looked at his father in utter astonishment as the room fell silent for a moment, until Draco spoke, his voice raised.

"What no; a mudblood is getting better results than you, Draco. You need to concentrate more, Draco. Stop looking at the girls and do the work, Draco. Father, don't pretend you care because you don't. You just want someone to pass on the name. For what, father? Malfoy's aren't respected anymore if you haven't noticed, you made sure of that. When you showed the whole world what a loser you are, father." Draco exploded with rage at the table. He was fed up of his father pretending to be civil because Draco and his mother were all Lucius had left.

Lucius sat silently, his head lowered and his eyes looking down towards the floor, he was ashamed but still angry with his son. As he ate breakfast he could feel the after effects of drinking too much last night and was in no mood for an argument.

"Draco, you will not say those things about your father. I know things have been difficult for you but if you don't apologise, you will be spending the day in your room reflecting upon what you have just said." Narcissa never raised her voice, she didn't have to. She was never the one to discipline her son before Lucius had got locked up and it still came as a shock to Draco when his mother dealt with his insolent behaviour now.

Calmly Lucius began to speak after his wife, not giving Draco the time to apologise. "Draco, I care very much about you and I wish you could see that. I may well be a loser, as you put it but I will do my best, my very best to make sure we are alright. I am still your father, Draco and you have no right to speak to me in that way, do you understand?" There was a glint of his former self in his blue-grey eyes as he told Draco that he would not speak to him in that manner. A slight sneer danced upon Lucius' features, though he never raised his voice, it was enough to let Draco know he would not tolerate being spoken to in that way by his son.

Draco was fed up of his parents telling him it would all be alright, did they seriously think him that stupid, they were going to get killed, all of them, thanks to his father, it was just a matter of time. "Whats the matter with you, father? Been raiding the cellar again? You ought to be careful, it's already messed with your brain." Draco calmed himself as he spoke directly to his mother "I'm sorry, I truly am but you must know, I've seen father, in his study, he's an alcoholic." This time it was Draco's turn to sneer at his father, a true Malfoy sneer, full of arrogance. After all, Draco hadn't been humiliated and was still rather full of himself to say the least.

At being accused of having a drinking problem, Lucius felt extremely uncomfortable, his head full of questions he couldn't answer, was he, Lucius Malfoy, an alcoholic? On one hand, he had managed to stop himself having a drink to sleep, in the night. On the other hand, he shouldn't have been contemplating drinking himself to sleep in the first place. He hardly heard Narcissa telling their son to go to his room, for ten minutes to think about what he had said to his father, after a few minutes she turned to Lucius.

"Lucius" Narcissa gently tapped Lucius' shoulder, to gain his attention. As Lucius turned to his left, Narcissa could see that yet again there were unshed tears in her husband's eyes. She sighed as it dawned on her that she was probably going to look after her husband like this for a very long time to come. "Lucius, you can't let him get to you like this. He is upset and just a boy. Draco doesn't realise what he's saying."

Lucius closed his eyes and breathed deeply and slowly to calm his increasing fragile nerves before he spoke quietly to his wife. "I've let him down, I've let you down, I've had every chance in life and let everyone down. As much as I won't tolerate my only son telling me, Draco is right. Honestly, Narcy, I don't know if I do have a drink problem or not as much as I hate the fact, I'm craving a glass of wine right now and I was so close to calling Tilly to get me a brandy in the night. I only didn't because of you, because I don't want to be a disappointment to you, because I wanted to spend time with you and Draco today."

Unbeknown to Lucius and Narcissa, Draco had been sat outside the dining room, all this time. He was starting to feel guilty for upsetting his father again. Draco had never seen his father look and act so dejected and he wondered how he could get back into his father's good books.

"And we will spend time together, Lucius. I'll go and retrieve Draco from his room, read him the riot act and get him to apologise to you, he'll come round, dear, eventually, I promise" Draco watched as his mother kissed his father goodbye and exited the room. At this point Draco had two options, to get to his room before his mother did or to go and speak with his father. As his mother was already on her way to his room, Draco decided to speak to his father.

Lucius heard footsteps behind him and got up quickly, spinning around to see who had just entered the room, he was quite obviously distressed at the thought of someone sneaking up on him. When he saw it was Draco, Lucius let out a sigh of relief. "Draco, what are you doing here, your mother was just on her way to your room."

"I didn't go, father, to my room. I listened to you and mother talk. Sorry, father, I know that things have been difficult for you and when you said you wanted to spend time with us, I felt bad for what I'd said. So, I decided that I wanted to apologise to you, in person, not with mother telling me to do so." Draco was nervous being so honest with his father but hoped he understood, it took Lucius a few seconds to reply.

"Well, Draco. Your mother is going to be displeased, you do realise that? I, though, cannot be angry for you were acting as any true Slytherin would, nor have you disobeyed my command." Lucius paused as he stepped closer to his son "I love you, Draco and I'm sorry for what has happened." As Lucius said this he took his son into his arms.

Draco looked up to see his father smiling slightly and if he didn't know his father better it looked as if he had been crying. "I love you too, Dad." Just as his father had done earlier, Draco smiled in a genuine way that would leave anyone who wasn't a Malfoy astonished that he could express a genuinely caring emotion.

A few minutes had passed of father and son talking at the table when clicking heels rushed into the room.

"Draco, how dare you disobey your mother?" Narcissa was almost shaking with rage when she saw her son that she barely noticed Lucius. Both Draco and Lucius looked at one and another and Lucius whispered to Draco, as he turned to face his wife. "I will deal with this."

"Narcissa, dear, Draco was listening to us, outside the room. It was wrong of him and I told him so but he was just concerned, for me. He wanted to apologise to me alone and has done. Everything is fine and I wish for you to leave it there." Lucius spoke gently and didn't command his wife to not go any further with the punishment of their son but knew she would listen to him, she always had done, she was a good wife.

Narcissa firstly decided to address her son "Draco, whilst I am displeased you have decided to disobey me, I am glad you have apologised to your father and this will go no further but let it be known, if anything like this happens again, I will follow through and you will be spending the whole day in your room, is that understood?" After Lucius had intervened, Narcissa felt like her newly given power had gone as quickly as it came. She was to be a good wife who above all obeyed her husband's wishes. A part of her felt bitter that Lucius had spoken up for his son and with that claimed back his status as head of this household. The worst thing was that Narcissa knew that Draco knew she would never go against her husbands wishes, no matter how absurd they were because she was just his wife.

After Narcissa had addressed Draco and her son had apologised for disobeying his mother, Narcissa thought about her new position. She was to lead the family when Lucius wasn't feeling up to it but to bow down to him when he was, after all Lucius didn't need to tell her what to do, his wish was her command.


	4. Music

Being held prisoner in your own home was difficult for anyone. The Malfoy family were no exception but at least had the opportunity to roam around their vast house and surrounding landscaped grounds.

Draco spent many of his free hours at home flying around outside on his Nimbus 2001, just like he did before the Dark Lord had taken up residence in the Malfoy house. Narcissa liked to paint, privately, in her own study, she was a creative woman and painting was something she liked to do, to express herself. Lucius was also a creative soul, unbeknown to the world outside. He spent many of his free hours at the piano playing pieces by his favourite composers, recently he had even started to compose his own pieces.

The Dark Lord arrived shortly after the family had taken a walk around the perimeter of the manor, together, after breakfast. As he arrived Lucius was playing the first movement of Beethoven's 'Tempest' Sonata. This displeased the Dark Lord greatly, didn't that idiot Malfoy know most of this stupid music was written for muggles, by muggles. Voldemort, was idly thinking how he could get this filthy muggle music and filthy muggle instrument out of his new headquarters.

"Bellatrix, inform Lucius that I wish to see him in the dining hall, now" Bella was always by Voldemort's side and liked to participate in torturing her brother-in-law, Lucius, almost as must as she enjoyed killing mudbloods.

Lucius was still playing as Bella entered the music room of Malfoy Manor. "Well, well what have we here." Bella cackled with excitement for the action awaiting her. Lucius practically jumped from the piano stool causing an abrupt stop to the music.

"Bellatrix" Lucius had gone from feeling content to shaking with pure unadulterated terror at the sight of his sister-in-law. She had been the last person to cast the Cruciatus curse upon him and here she was, stood infront of him. Narcissa heard that Lucius had suddenly stopped playing his piano and realised something must be wrong, he never stopped playing half way through a piece, especially when he was playing as flawlessly as he had been today, she started to make her way to the music room.

"The Dark Lord, requires you in the dining hall, now, Lucius" Bella smirked at Lucius as he flinched when she moved, his hands were still shaking uncontrollably. He knew it was no use to plead with his sister-in-law, she would curse him into next year if he did so instead, he began to follow Bellatrix out of the room.

Narcissa saw Lucius, paler than ever approaching with her sister who was leading him somewhere. She knew Voldemort was back in their house as soon as she saw her sister with Lucius. "Bella, what do you want with my husband?" She said to Bella with as much confidence as she could muster, she simply had to find an excuse to get Lucius out of this situation.

"Cissy, The Dark Lord wishes to see him, not you. So run along, Cissy and keep out of The Dark Lord's way, I'd rather you didn't get hurt." Bella sneered at Narcissa, ignoring that Lucius was pleading with his wife to go and find Draco. "Come, Lucius." Bella pulled Lucius into his dining hall where Voldemort was sat at the head seat waiting.

"Take a seat, Lucius, Narcissa you too as you so kindly decided to join us. Come closer, join Draco and I." Voldemort didn't fail to notice the absolute horror written across both of the elder Malfoy's faces. They both reluctantly took their seats at the large ornate table to the right of where Draco was seated.

Lucius' heart rate started to rise and he started to panic, absolutely terrified that his reoccurring nightmare was becoming a reality. It took all of his strength to stop his whole body from violently shaking infront of his 'Master'. Narcissa noticed her husband's distress and put aside her own worries to be strong for him, she reached her right hand out and locked her hand to his left hand, as she touched him Lucius managed to relax slightly. Draco was as white as freshly fallen snow and held his mother's hand as he watched his father crumble before his very eyes.

Voldemort started to speak "I have not called you here to kill you. You already know your place in my reign and you will become of use to me, soon enough. I have come to ask if I can have some extra funding to further my cause." Voldemort did not ask anything of anyone, his wish was their command and the Malfoy family knew it.

Lucius looked up, this cretin was going to try and bankrupt him then he'd kill all of them when the Malfoy family fortune ran out, that or throw them out onto the streets. "M-my Lord?" Lucius' shaky voice spoke with both fear and contempt.

"Do I detect discontent in your voice, Lucius? Discontent that your Master wishes to further his cause with the help of your fortune? Or discontent that I am in your home and have disturbed your filthy muggle hobbies, Lucius?"

"I-I do not have any lev-level of discontentment to you, m-my Lord." Lucius looked towards his wife and back to Voldemort then to the floor, he felt terribly uncomfortable and was still slightly shaking when the Dark Lord replied.

"Such lies, Lucius. No wonder you were relieved of your position in Hogwarts, I cannot imagine the school likes liars any more than I do." Voldemort's twisted snake like face smiled as he saw Lucius was starting to hyperventilate again. "So afraid, aren't you Lucius? You always have been, no matter how you've tried to hide it, I knew. Only now it's so delightful to watch you squirm right infront of my eyes, at your own table." The evil Master was waiting for Lucius to become angry but he was unsuccessful as Lucius managed to calm his nerves a little before he spoke, clearly this time.

"What do you want? How much?" Whilst Lucius didn't look quite as terrified, his hands were still shaking and he was breathing deeply to attempt to calm his frayed nerves. He couldn't help but look both uncomfortable and displeased at the very thought of giving more money away for Voldemort's 'cause'.

"I require 5 Firebolt brooms, Potter will be escaping the muggle families house and I have it on good authority they will be making their escape on broomsticks. Speaking of which; that is the other reason I'm here. I hear that Draco is quite the flyer?" At the mention of his name Draco looked almost as terrified as Lucius did but managed to keep much more of his composure than his father had managed.

"I'm OK, I suppose. Not exceptional, not like Potter, he's beat me to the snitch in every Quidditch game we've played." Draco tried his best to look annoyed and practically spat the name 'Potter'.

Narcissa then interrupted with an answer to the first question "2000 Galleons will not be a problem, my Lord."

Lord Voldemort smiled and shook his head as he proceeded to mock Lucius. "Your wife is in charge of the Malfoy fortune now, is she, Lucius? What's next is she going to pick your robes for you as well?"

By this time Lucius had managed to regain some of his composure as he replied "No my Lord. My wife is not in charge of my finances, she was merely just answering for me. I have not been well these past few days, so Narcissa has been taking care of my business. As my wife told you 2000 Galleons is not a problem. " Lucius regretfully decided to look to his son in utter disdain as he carried on speaking "Draco, much to my disappointment, is nothing outstanding in the flying department, infact he is somewhat short of average. Despite, my efforts in acquiring his whole team new brooms, they are regularly beaten by Griffindors on CleanSweeps." Lucius Malfoy managed to sneer and glare at Draco as if he was making a personal jibe at his son infront of Voldemort. He wasn't of course, Lucius just didn't want his son going out on missions where many members of the Order would be, if he was honest, he didn't want his son going out on missions at all.

In truth, Lucius had never really prescribed to the whole notion that a husband must rule over his wife in every way, as was common in wizarding society. He believed it was his place to finalise decisions and run the household democratically, not through coercion and punishment. He had joined Voldemort as a foolish young man expecting to get some excitement out of causing some mischief, not expecting murder and torture to be the order of the day. He'd only stayed in Voldemort's favour because he was good at planning raids and had money. Lucius would have been disposed of long ago if it wasn't for those saving graces when his Master found Lucius could not maim or kill anyone, nor could his son and for this Lucius was thankful.

"Very well, I will have more useful servants take care of bringing Potter to me. You may go, Draco, Narcissa. Lucius, I would like a word with you."

As his family left, Lucius knew that Voldemort didn't want 'a word' with him at all and he had found something else to punish him for. "My Lord?" Lucius questioned.

"Lucius, do you realise who wrote this music that you play?" Voldemort almost sounded innocent as he questioned Lucius.

"I was playing Beethoven earlier, my lord." Lucius actually felt quite confused as to why Voldemort was questioning him about composers. It played on his mind for a moment that perhaps Voldemort played the piano too and this wasn't a punishment at all. His hopes were dashed when the reply came.

"Muggles, Lucius. Filthy muggles wrote that music. Why do you dedicate your time to playing filthy muggle music, Lucius?"

Lucius was quick to answer, he knew a great deal about music and magic "My Lord, there are many proven magical properties of music, especially music of the tonal era. You know that my father was no supporter of mudbloods but he insisted I learnt to play when I was young, it just happened to be something I am rather good at." Much to his father's disappointment, thought Lucius sadly to himself. His father although insistent upon Lucius to learn the piano was never very much interested in the arts himself and was always disappointed that his son didn't have a scientific bone in his body. No wonder he struggled immensely at Transfiguration, Lucius thought to himself and almost missed what Voldemort was telling him he was to be punished for playing music written by a muggle.

"Stupefy" Voldemort threw Lucius into the wall behind him, repeatedly. This wasn't the type of pain that the Cruciatus curse gave but Lucius knew this would give him physical injuries and make him weak for days, if not weeks.

After this punishment had been given to Lucius 10 times, leaving him unable to get up, the Dark Lord left the dining hall of Malfoy Manor. Lucius was laid on the floor, suspecting that his shoulder had been broken, his robes were covered in dirt and what he suspected to be his own blood. His usually well groomed hair was lying unruly around his head gathering dirt on the floor and he was struggling to even summon his elf to help him. Lucius helplessly closed his eyes as he waited for someone to find him.

"Dad! Father!" A concerned Draco had been looking for his father for a while, knowing his father had got him out of danger earlier, now he had found him. Draco had never seen his father look in such a state.

Lucius opened his eyes slowly, thankful that someone had found him but he didn't want Draco to him like this, so helpless. "Dr-" Lucius cleared his voice before he attempted to speak again "Draco" as he said his name Lucius remembered what he had said about Draco's flying ability at the table "I'm sorry, Draco, about earlier. Will you help me, I need Tilly to come and help me, heal me and put me to bed for a bit. Draco, please summon her for me."

Draco summoned Tilly in that instant. "Father, what did he do to you? Why?" Draco's voice was full of concern for his father's wellbeing.

"He threw me into the wall, several times, I think my shoulder is broken, Draco." Lucius answered his son in a matter of fact way, as Draco responded.

"But why, father?" Draco's voice whined, quizzically looking down into his father's sad blue-grey eyes.

"Because I play the piano, that's what he said, though I doubt he actually has an excuse, Draco." By now Tilly was helping Lucius up and healing his wounds. The house elf was a fairly good healer but could not place glamour charms upon Lucius to make him look any better, so after he was able to move freely again it was obvious that something had happened to him. "Tilly, a large measure of brandy and then bed for me I think."

"Yes, sir" Tilly responded as she went to get Lucius the drink.

Draco was annoyed his father had asked for a drink of brandy at 2O'Clock in the afternoon and began to question Lucius' motives, until Lucius told his son whilst he had been physically healed Tilly was no Madame Pomfrey and he was still in a lot of pain and the brandy helped, albeit in a small way, he was quick to promise Draco he wouldn't get too drunk, though.

It was at that point Tilly got back and Lucius sipped the brandy whilst talking to his son about Potions ingredients. Instead of going straight to bed Tilly and Draco led him to sit down on a comfortable chair by the fire, so he and Draco could talk.


	5. I Will Always Love You

If truth be known, Lucius was in agony after the Dark Lord had served his latest punishment upon Lucius. "At least he got what he wanted." Lucius huffed to himself, knowing that his home would be silent for the next few weeks. If he survived that long as to recover: the thoughts about losing the family fortune and either death or being made to live in absolute poverty were often in Lucius' mind. It did his already frayed nerves no good to be thinking that way; in fact, the thoughts seemed so real that Lucius felt sickened by them. Which give him an excuse to drink. 'Leave it alone, go and watch Draco fly instead, he has potential' the more reasonable side of Lucius thought.

Despite it being two days since the Malfoy's had last seen Lord Voldemort in their home, they all felt his presence through Bellatrix, who had been told to stay behind, to keep an eye on Lucius. The cane that Lucius had used to conceal his wand and point at things with now served a different purpose; these days he leaned on it, hobbling outside his grandiose home and into the well kept grounds.

Narcissa rushed over to her husband, surprised to see him outside, he looked so frail, her once proud and arrogant husband looked so sickly and frail these days. For a Wizard, Lucius was not even middle-aged yet, seeing him like this saddened Narcissa greatly and yet she was still glad to see him. Glad that he wasn't sat in his study, door locked, drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Glad that he had took her advice. "Lucius." She gracefully walked over to her husband, gentling draping her arm around his waist. He'd lost so much weight, even though he was hardly fat to start with, it saddened her just how frail Lucius seemed to be but she knew that she had to be strong. Running her fingers through his silky and lustrous hair she smiled at him. "It's a nice day again. A lovely day for flying, Draco's good; I think with the right training he could play professionally, our son would like that."

"You should know, how I used to enjoy watching you scoring goals; the best Chaser Slytherin ever had." Lucius smirked at his wife, truth be told even had she been a terrible Chaser, he'd have still watched her flying and have not been paying attention searching for the Snitch.

Narcissa laughed at Lucius; she wasn't so naive at school to not realise that Slytherin hardly won a match because 'that idiot Malfoy' was too busy eying up the girls rather than chasing after the Snitch as any good Seeker would. "If you'd have put the same effort into catching the Snitch as you did into catching me, perhaps we'd have won some games. I recall even Hufflepuff beat us but the team wouldn't get rid of you because your dad kept buying brooms." It was her turn to smirk at her husband. During her school years; she had been obsessed about Quidditch and almost embarrassed to be a Slytherin, due to their abysmal Quidditch performance; not to mention her cousin Sirius had constantly teased her, being a Griffindor. They had the best Seeker Hogwarts had ever seen: James Potter and who did Slytherin have - Lucius 'Considerably Richer Than You' Malfoy.

During her first five years at Hogwarts, Narcissa spent quite a lot of time complaining about Malfoy. He had constantly goaded her and obviously fancied her from as soon as she sat in the Great Hall with the Sorting Hat on her head! Once, the carefree Malfoy heir had been lounged across a sofa in the Slytherin common room, glass of fire whiskey in hand and he had shouted across the room, in front of their whole house 'Narcissa Black, one day you'll be my wife!'. Narcissa had been in her forth year and had loathed Malfoy - there he was, OWL's coming up at any time for him, not studying but instead lounged in the common room, taking up three other people's seats, drinking fire whiskey. Which was, in fact, illegal for a child to drink and that was what Malfoy was, a child. Unashamedly, Narcissa had shouted back over the whole of the common room 'Fuck off, Malfoy.' He had infuriated Narcissa, he was, at best, a mediocre Wizard and yet thought he was God's gift - all because he was rich. Filthy rich.

Lucius smirked at Narcissa, she always had been bitter about his lack of performance on the Quidditch pitch, always. In fact, during their first few years at school together, she had found Lucius distinctly unimpressive. However, nobody was exempt from the Malfoy charm. "I did well at catching you though, didn't I, dear? I recall saying before we had even said so much as a civil word to one and other that you'd be my wife, Mrs. Malfoy." Lucius looked longingly into Narcissa's bright blue eyes and held her hand in his, before moving to sit at one of the many garden benches dotted around Malfoy Manor.

"And I recall telling you to fuck off, Malfoy." Narcissa laughed before looking into the sky to see her son flying around the grounds. "However, you never gave up hope and I eventually came round and do you know what, Lucius? I haven't regretted it for a minute." She turned to her husband smiling, as she smoothed his hair and chastely planted a kiss on his cheek.

"Even now?" Lucius said weakly, knowing that he was not the man he once was. Staring at the floor, he was surprised to feel Narcissa's lips against his skin.

"Even now. I'll always love you, Lucius." Narcissa was practically beaming, reminiscing on happier times did wonders for her. She pulled Lucius even closer to her and gently lifted his chin pulling him ever closer towards her before kissing him passionately.

"Eeew, can you two get a room, please!" Draco's whining voice seemed to come from nowhere and Narcissa embarrassingly pulled away from her husband.

Lucius, being Lucius didn't really care that Draco had seen he and his mother enjoying a moment of closeness. He smirked at his seventeen year old son. "Honestly, Draco." Rolling his eyes at their son, Lucius' smirk widened. "One day, you'll be lucky enough to love somebody as dearly as I love your mother."

"Doesn't mean I'll be making out with her on the grounds!" Draco laughed, in all honesty he was glad that his parents loved one and other; so many Pureblood families hated one and other and had married just because they were kind of obliged to.

"Well, I'll do what I like in my own grounds. Last time I looked it was my name on the deeds." Arrogantly, Lucius replied to his son and heir. By now Narcissa was trying to stop herself laughing and Lucius protectively draped his arm over her shoulders, she responded by leaning her head on Lucius' shoulder.

Narcissa laughed at her husband's actions. Still the same Lucius Malfoy, then. "Stop it, Lucius. You are embarrassing our son. Our son, the talented Seeker." She rolled her eyes and patted her husband's thigh to let him know that she was only teasing him. Truth be told, she was so glad to see a glimpse of the old Lucius back and for a few moments at least, the family seemed to finally share a few moments of happiness.

Unbeknown to the family who were talking and laughing together, Bellatrix was quietly sneaking up on them. She was bored with the prisoner in the dungeons, it wasn't as if the old wand maker knew anything and watching Lucius scream was much more entertaining. The high heels of her boots sunk a little into the grass but that only meant she could make a quieter approach, she was not concerned of the fact that her dress slightly rustled in the breeze as there were plenty of trees. Wand at the ready, she'd get her fun, momentarily her eyes closed with pleasure and her lips curled into a sick smile whilst she thought about cursing Lucius, he was only a couple of feet away.

"Surprise!" Bellatrix cackled jumping out in front of the bench the family was sat at, before she cursed Lucius, she wanted to see the look on his face when he noticed her. She wasn't disappointed, Narcissa simply rolled her eyes at her big sister, Draco looked mildly shocked but Lucius - well Lucius' face was a picture. He'd gone from being the carefree, arrogant aristocrat he usually was to looking something akin to a terrified rabbit staring into the headlamp of an on coming car. "Crucio." Bellatrix cast her expert curse upon Lucius as his family looked on in horror.

Lucius was doubled over in pain, Bella's cruciatus presented itself as a thousand knives invisibly stabbing his body. Struggling to even breathe, Lucius found himself feeling almost as if he was underwater. He knew that he was screaming in pain, he knew that there was some other noise but he couldn't make out what was happening - nor did he care. However until the pain stopped, as quickly as it had started he hadn't realised the commotion had been caused by Narcissa, until he heard Draco screaming for his mother.

"Don't you dare touch my husband." Narcissa had screamed as soon as Bellatrix had cast the Cruciatus on her Lucius. Before Bella could disarm Narcissa, she had her wand in her hand. "Finite." She pointed her wand at Lucius, finishing his anguish before standing and sneering at her insane older sister. "Stupefy."

Bellatrix easily dodged the spell Narcissa had sent and manically laughed at her younger sister, Cissy did not seriously think she could win a duel with the Dark Lords most favoured, did she? Bellatrix thought to herself sending back the Protego charm. As crazy as Bellatrix was she didn't particularly want to torture the younger sister she had always tried her best to protect.

Draco screamed out for his mother to watch out as soon as he saw that his aunt had countered his mother's curse. Jumping out of his seat and running towards his mother, Draco drew his own wand, leaving Lucius to recover. "Locomotor Mortis" Draco shouted and a jet of purple light flew out of his wand but Bellatrix narrowly dodged the leg locking curse.

"Impedimenta." Narcissa screamed, hitting Bellatrix this time with the charm. Having duelled many times with her sister as a young witch, Narcissa knew that slowing your opponent down quickly meant that she had the advantage early on. Cast the curses once the opponents reaction times have been slowed down - it made sense.

"Do you really think you two are any match for me?" Bellatrix shouted. "Cissy, I taught you all you know and well, Draco, unless I'm very much mistaken you've got that failure's blood running through your veins!" She pointed to Lucius.

Lucius could do nothing except watch as the duel unfolded, not only did he not have a wand anymore, he was still gasping for breath, his heart was racing and he was feeling as if he was about to pass out. He knew that had nothing to do with the Cruciatus curse that had been cast upon him. He was suffering from a panic attack. Leaning his head against the top of the bench, Lucius could not really see what was happening, the next thing he heard after Bellatrix's taunts to his wife and son was a barrage of hexes and curses raining down upon Bellatrix. His son was casting some silly but very effective curses and his wife had cast some very old Dark curses that even he had hardly known. Neither of them were going to kill Bellatrix or cast the Cruciatus but they were determined to put the evil witch out of action for a good few days.

Once Narcissa was satisfied that Bellatrix had been placed under so many curses that she was hardly going to move for at least a couple of weeks, she pulled Draco away and made her way back to Lucius, despite the fact that her sister was lying unconscious on the ground; her precious Dark Lord could help her, Narcissa had decided.

All the way back to the garden bench Draco stared at his mother in awe. He had never even heard half of the curses his mother had cast and her wand was still glowing from something. All of his life, Draco had presumed his father to be stronger magically and had never really gone to his mother for advice but today he witnessed a strength he thought his mother never had. Cursing himself mentally for ever thinking his mother was not a strong Witch despite being a Black, Draco shook his head and sighed, before looking back to his mother and smiling. "You were amazing, mum."

"What did you expect? Me to flounder? Draco I've duelled her more times than I'd like to count, she goes straight for the curses, the nasty curses, straight away but you can dodge those easily so long as you've got your wits about you. Slow or knock out your opponent, then hit, it might not look as impressive but duelling is about being in control, Draco. It's not about showing off." As Narcissa spoke to her son, her eyes lit up. She had always been interested in teaching but Draco had never seemed interested in learning anything from her, he had always gone straight to Lucius and she wasn't about to undermine Lucius' authority. However, Lucius being the man he was had probably not been the ideal candidate in teaching Draco the art of duelling, he had always been a terrible show off. None of that mattered now as she approached Lucius and wrapped her husband in her arms. Prison and the Dark Lord had affected Lucius so badly that Narcissa knew she had to defend her husband to the absolute best of her ability.

Draco had made his mind up that he was going to ask his mother for some duelling lessons, she was awesome back there. Whilst his father was extremely good at theorising and making things like potions, Draco realised that his mother was infinitely more practical. Her hexes were extremely creative and they flowed so easily out of the tip of her wand, everything she did was both amazing and effortless. It was like she didn't even need to think, her reactions were so fast and the next spell seemed to be constantly on the tip of her tongue and yet her potions were terrible, anything that required patience his mother was terrible at and his father excelled. "Mother, you just, well, you always used to tell me to ask father, I just thought you didn't know and your potions are rubbish, nor do you write good essays." Draco smirked at his mother.

Narcissa rolled her eyes, so that was why Draco always went to his father: Potions and essays. Essays. He really was a true Malfoy: intellectual and yet with few practical skills, bookish, clever and thinks that one can get away with everything by charming ones opponent. Despite the fact she was trying her best to comfort her husband, Narcissa began to laugh. "Essays? Honestly, Draco. I think the whole Black bloodline completely passed you. Whilst being able to research topics and write about them has it's purpose, practical magic is the difference between life and death."

Looking at his mother in horror as she told him she thought the Black bloodline had passed him. "I don't want to be a Black, she's a Black." He spoke defiantly as he pointed towards Bellatrix who was still lying unconscious on the grass.

Before Narcissa could even chip in, Lucius' weak voice spoke "And so is your mother, Draco. Apologise at once." Although his voice was quiet and weak, Lucius still managed to command authority. Slowly, he was coming round, his breathing started slow and the fear of impeding death subsided. "You really were wonderful, my dear." Lucius proudly looked at his wife. Despite everything that had happened in these last few years; Lucius knew he hadn't failed in every part of his life, he had a wonderful family.


	6. Lucius' Worst Fear

"Narcissa, my most beautiful servant." The Dark Lord hissed at Narcissa Malfoy. "It appears you are quite the talented witch; remind me, why were you not marked?" His twisted face was contorted into a sick smile as the Death Eater meeting commenced. Lord Voldemort looked around his table of Death Eaters; Bellatrix was, as always sat to his right and most unusually was Narcissa sat immediately to his left, splitting the Malfoy family up, as Lucius and Draco were seated at the far end of the table away from their master.

Narcissa Malfoy, unlike her husband had not lost any confidence, of course she was scared of the Dark Lord, anyone who was even half sane would be. However, she knew that it did not do one any favours to be timid in his presence. "My Lord, when the Dark Mark was issued I was pregnant." She replied quietly but with absolute confidence, as she was speaking the truth. Lucius had, at the time, been horrified to think of his pregnant wife being involved in potentially dangerous missions and Narcissa couldn't stop the slight smile that danced upon her features as she thought about just how caring Lucius had been right the way through her difficult pregnancy.

The Dark Lord's twisted, snake like face sneered at Narcissa and proceeded to look further down the table towards the two Malfoy men. "Ah, so you were, with Draco." The evil Wizard beckoned Draco to come closer and sit by his mother. "Draco, Draco, I forget you have the blood of your mother running through your veins. You could be a great Wizard, young man. You could be powerful, very powerful. If only you were given the right training." At this the Dark Lord sneered at Lucius, who to Voldemort's great delight was sat between Avery and Dolohov trying so very hard to hang on to the last shreds of dignity he had left.

Both Lucius and Narcissa knew better than to counter anything the Dark Lord had to say as Bellatrix jumped into the conversation, without invitation. "My Lord, perhaps if I were to train the boy? With the right training he could cast an excellent Cruciatus, my Lord, as his hexes were strong. However, his training has been weak." Staring longingly into the Dark Lord's eyes, she was searching desperately for approval, especially after being disgraced by her younger sister.

Dismissing Bellatrix's request; Voldemort waved his hand nonchalantly towards the evil witch and decided to address a terrified Draco himself. "My boy, you will train under the best in the Dark Arts. Your aunt would only be teaching you second hand information, you will be training under me. If you prove yourself, Draco, you could take Bella's place as my second in command. I believe I was wrong about you when I stated that you were weak, you are not. It is the training from your failure of a father that has been weak, so you must renounce him, is that understood?"

Unexpectedly, the trembling boy rose out of his seat and stood, facing the Dark Lord; he was obviously very frightened. However, he was also defiant and still rather naive. "My father is a good man and a good Wizard, I will not renounce my family, not for you or anybody." Draco bellowed and could hardly believe what he was doing himself but just who did the Dark Lord think he was? The man was meant to be a champion of Pureblood ideals and right at the heart of Pureblood ideals was the notion that families stuck together for better or worse, so his father had always told him.

Lucius looked on in horror as his only child defied the Dark Lord to defend Lucius' own honour. The last thing he wanted was his son being punished by their master and he found that his state of panic was rising again. However, this time Lucius didn't let his racing heart dictate over him, instead he sat quietly, breathing deeply to regain a little composure. He knew nothing he could say or do would stop the Dark Lord now and he also knew he needed to stay well enough to look after his family to the best of his ability. Getting punished by the Dark Lord was not going to help anyone.

The Dark Lord merely chuckled at Draco "You have more spirit than I thought, boy. Misguided spirit but enough of it for me to turn you into a great Wizard, young Malfoy. You'll learn soon enough that your father is nothing but a fool." His words were quietly spoken but in a low and dangerous manner. At that Voldemort dismissed his Death Eaters.

After the mornings meeting, Lucius was sat in the drawing room, glass of brandy in hand brooding about what had happened in the meeting earlier. Draco, being trained by the Dark Lord, it made Lucius shudder but since the meeting, his Master had dragged Draco somewhere and Narcissa had been accosted by numerous other Death Eaters, due to her new found authority in the organisation. The rational, sane part of Lucius knew that neither his son or wife wanted their new positions but the unhinged and needy side disagreed, causing him to be sat here, drinking. Reminding himself that Draco had faced Voldemort to defend Lucius' honour, he felt guilty for even considering that his son was enjoying being the Dark Lord's flavour of the week.

"Tilly is here to help Master, does Master require anything new?" Tilly the house elf had apparated into the room. As much as she did not want to serve her Master any more alcoholic drinks, she knew what would happen if she did not obey him. Her Master had been a cruel man in the past.

With guilt consuming him, Lucius stared at the house elf for a moment. Here he was; midday and he had already had far too much to drink. The now familiar feeling of drunkenness was washing over him. His mind didn't feel one hundred percent his own as his head spun a little, slightly disorientating him. Leaning against the back of the chair, Lucius tried to sneer at the elf but found he no longer had it in him to convince even a House Elf of his superiority. Tilly would serve him no matter how harshly or how well he treated her and it was in that moment Lucius Malfoy decided he would not ever willingly physically harm another defenceless being. Why? One may ask, because Lucius now knew what it felt like to be both defenceless and persecuted against. "No thank you, Tilly. Could you find Narcissa and Draco please and bring them to me?"

Bowing low Tilly smiled at her Master "Tilly will find Mistress and Master Draco right away."

Since the meeting had ended and after a personal lecture in the Unforgiveables from the Dark Lord himself; Draco had gone to his bedroom. The weather was terrible outside, it was cold and raining. So, here he was reading some material that could prove useful for his NEWTs year; that was until Tilly the elf decided to disturb him. "What do you want?" Draco said coarsely.

"Tilly must take Master Draco to Lord Malfoy, Sir." With a certain degree of urgency, Tilly grabbed Draco by the arm and apparated him to the drawing room, where Lucius was seated, empty glass and decanter on the heavily burred walnut side table beside him.

Narcissa was already in the room, talking in hushed tones to her husband and Lucius was sat with his head leaning against the back of the armchair and with his eyes half closed. He'd been drinking, Draco had come to that conclusion as soon as he saw the glass. After everything he had done, at the meeting, his father decided to pay him back by drinking before lunch, never mind dinner. For that moment, Draco felt disgusted at his father. He walked around the chair his father was sat at, sneering superciliously. "Father." He said in the same coarse tones he had used to address the House Elf earlier.

Lucius did his best to focus on his son but floundered a little in that he had to keep his head resting against the back of the chair lest the overwhelming nausea set in. "Draco, are you alright?" Even sober, Lucius' speech was somewhat of a slow, plummy drawl but once he had been drinking it was a slurred and lazier, plummy drawl which could be quite hard to understand as his vowels became even more elongated.

"Fine. Well I was until I saw you!" Draco snapped, it upset him greatly to see his father in such a drunken state. Despite Lucius' constant badgering Draco had never quite developed quite the same refinement to his tones as Lucius had.

"How dare you talk to me like that? I'm your father, you insolent boy and you'd do well to remember that. I merely was concerned for your well being, after this morning." Lucius roared, the illogical, drunken voice in his head was telling him once more that Draco was enjoying his new found position in the Dark Lord's ranks.

"How dare I?" Draco mocked Lucius, copying his words. "I dare, the minute you decide to get off your face before lunch is served, father." Draco spat. "How dare you be such a disgrace? Especially as we have guests, if you haven't noticed." There. That'd hurt his father more than anything else he could say, Draco thought bitterly to himself. At this moment seeing his father in such a drunken state, a small part of him understood why Lucius was being openly mocked by the Dark Lord. He had failed so many times but he was Draco's father and no matter what he did or how many times he failed, when push came to shove, Draco would still defend him. It didn't mean to say that he wouldn't show his fury to the man, however.

Lucius closed his eyes in defeat, his son was right and as much as he wanted to punish Draco for his insolence, Lucius found himself remaining silent and concentrating on his dizzy spell. He, Lucius Malfoy, Lord of Malfoy Manor was a disgrace, a drunken disgrace waiting for his impending death. He barely noticed Narcissa chastising their son whilst simultaneously sneering at him. Instead, Lucius was wallowing in self pity and the hot tears started to cascade down his cheeks, somewhat akin to a four year old child who has had their favourite toy taken away from them. "Sorry" He managed to choke out, ignoring the inevitable wave of nausea, Lucius turned towards his family and unsteadily got to his feet, to stand beside his wife.

It wasn't often that Narcissa was anything less than proud to say that she was Lucius' wife but today was one of those moments. What had happened to the calm, dignified, superior man that she called her husband? She knew that his drinking habit was getting completely out of control as she steadied the broken man beside her. "Lucius, there really is no need for this. Especially not in front of our son, we love you and we wish you'd stop doing this to yourself. Lucius, You-Know-Who is not going to be around forever, we are Malfoy's and that means that we are strong and dignified. We do not wallow in self pity or try and drink ourselves into a coma."

Even as she was lecturing her husband, Narcissa gently massaged his upper back in an attempt to sooth Lucius' unstable emotional state. Draco simply stared, mouth agape at his father who was balling his eyes out like a baby and apologising profusely for his behaviour and failures. He didn't quite know how to react or what to say for he had never once seen his father in such a state. The father who had constantly lectured him as a child, that it was unbecoming to show your emotions in anymore a public place than one's own bedroom. Considering that at any moment one of the Dark Lord's most favoured could walk into this room or even the Dark Lord himself, Draco shook his head in complete disbelief at his father's actions.

After a few moments, Lucius managed to calm himself and looked to the floor in absolute shame. How had he let his emotions get the better of him, like that? Especially in front of Draco. Of course, Lucius knew: he was so very frightened of the future, the thing that Lucius Malfoy feared the most was death. In truth, he feared death even more than he feared poverty and with Draco reigning highly in the Dark Lord's order – what was the use in keeping him? Wandless, useless, pathetic, cowardly Lucius Malfoy felt he was being replaced by his son. "He's going to kill me, the Dark Lord is going to kill me and then I'll spend all eternity in hell – God doesn't take pity on people like me." His voice was barely a whisper, as he leaned closer to Narcissa.

"Don't be ridiculous, Lucius." Narcissa scalded her husband but she also felt pity for him. She could see just how frightened he was and knew that Lucius had always been very afraid of his own mortality. Clicking her fingers to summon the House Elf, Narcissa placed her defeated husband back down onto the armchair he had been sat at and turned towards her son. "Your father is going to bed for a few hours but I'll expect you dressed for dinner at 7.30 this evening, is that understood, Draco?"

"Yes mother." Draco answered his mother quickly, knowing she certainly would stand for no more of his insolent behaviour.

Tilly the house elf appeared with a crack and frowned as she saw her Master slumped in the armchair he had been sat at. He no longer looked regal, his expensive clothes were crumpled and his hair was dishevelled. Tilly simply shook her head, wondering just what had upset her previously strong Master so much. "Tilly is here for Mistress, what would Mistress like?"

"Take Lucius to bed, tell him that I will follow shortly." Narcissa spoke in an authoritative business-like tone to the ugly creature stood before her. Once she heard the familiar crack of the house elf's exit, Narcissa addressed Draco. "Go and make yourself useful, go study or something."

Draco meekly nodded at his mother, making his way out of the room quietly he turned back to see his mother trying to fight her own emotions "Will you be alright, mum?" He hesitated before speaking again "Will father be OK?"

"Of course I will, dear. Your father is going through a lot at the moment, he's not well but once this is over, he'll be fine." Narcissa smiled, hoping that she was speaking the truth, not really knowing whether or not any of them would be fine, let alone Lucius. However, she wasn't going to scare her son and she had a suspicion that once this was over there may be a way to carry on with their lives, providing Potter won. Call it a woman's intuition but she didn't believe the brat who lived would make her family suffer anymore – the Order would have much bigger fish to fry than the Malfoy's, nor did she believe that the Dark Lord would win – he was too insane not to make slip ups these days.

"Lies. Father's right, he'll kill us – all of us." Draco bellowed back at his mother, he was fed up of being lied to like a child.

"You do not speak to me in that manner, Draco." Narcissa warned "Now listen to me, dinner, dressed appropriately, 7.30 this evening. You know that your father does not stand for you not looking you best, now shoo." She waved her hand at Draco, as if she was swatting a fly away. It was not Draco who needed her right now. Narcissa turned away from her son and began marching to the master suite to speak to her disgrace of a husband.

Lucius had been placed, still fully clothed, on top of his bed. He was not asleep but had his eyes closed lying curled up on his side. The elf had done her best to at least smooth her Master's dishevelled blonde hair before departing the room. He didn't even move when he heard somebody enter the room, knowing that it was his wife. Knowing that she had come to berate him further, Lucius sighed.

At the sight of her husband curled up on the imposing four poster bed, eyes closed, looking so defeated, any malice Narcissa had towards him just melted away. The truth was she felt too sorry for him to berate the man who seemed to be so utterly terrified of the future. Instead of screaming or shouting, she too got on the bed and took Lucius' weary body into her arms. "You're not going to die, Lucius. None of us are, we'll be alright and things will get back to normal when this farce is over with but you need to keep yourself together. Dear, please, please believe me."


	7. Disgrace

***Thank you all for such wonderful reviews and sorry for the delay in getting this chapter on, I have been working on this for a while and struggling a bit with it, so I hope it is OK! Please keep reviewing, it really encourages me to carry on writing! :D***

Draco had decided that he'd had enough. Had enough of being treated like a child, enough of being made to live by his father's rules, despite his father disobeying them. He was fed up of his mother telling him he had to dress appropriately for dinner, just because his father wanted him to and yet his father was looking increasingly dishevelled, almost by the day.

Smirking to himself Draco decided to go out on his broom, despite the fact it was raining, despite the fact that his clothes would get dirty and muddied, despite the fact his father would disapprove. He was seventeen years of age and didn't need his father's approval of whether or not he could ride his broom in the rain. 'I better Potter rides his broom in the rain' Draco thought bitterly as he headed to the out buildings to collect his broom.

Meanwhile, Narcissa was still laid next to her husband on top of their bed. She couldn't bring herself to be angry with the disgraced man and knew that no matter what happened she would always love him. Besides, she knew that she was lucky - he believed their marriage to be just as important as she did. Something which was fairly unusual in their circles - most Wizards still thought of their wives as their property but Lucius had been different from the very beginning of their courtship; he had shown Narcissa more respect than any other man she knew had afforded to his wife. "Perhaps you ought to try and get some sleep?" Narcissa spoke softly to her husband. "I'll bring you a couple of potions before dinner to make you feel a bit better."

"Stay with me, please Narcy, don't leave me alone." Lucius knew that his voice came out as nothing but a pathetic whimper and yet he hardly felt shameful. "Narcissa, do you truly believe this will all be over with soon?" A little hope rose as he looked at his wife expectantly, she always had answers did his Narcissa.

"Well, let's look at the facts. One: the Potter brat and the Dark Lord are going to come to blows, soon enough. Two: the Dark Lord has lost it, he's absolutely insane and is constantly tripping up. He's not the man he used to be. Potter, as much as I hate to say it, is a powerful Wizard and foolishly brave. It won't be long, Lucius. However, until then we need to try our best not to fall any further in the Dark Lord's mind." Narcissa smiled as she snuggled up close to her husband, kissing the plain gold wedding ring that she had never once seen him take off his finger since the day they said their vows.

"Damned if we do and damned if we don't, then, my dear." Lucius sighed closing his eyes, if the Dark Lord won - he and his family would be killed or used until they had nothing. If Potter won, Lucius at least would be made to serve time in Azkaban, time under the Dementors and he knew he wasn't strong enough to survive them for long.

Narcissa smirked at how defeated Lucius seemed to be, remembering that the Dark Lord had commented that he and Potter shared a special bond; each being able to see into each others lives, Narcissa's smirk widened. "We are Slytherins, Lucius and don't you ever forget that. Ambition, cunning and a certain disregard for the rules will see to our freedom, mark my words my dear husband. I'm no sear but I know that the Dark Lord knows Potter sees what happens and whilst a filthy Half-Blood Griffindor looking into my home would concern me, under normal circumstances, now is not the time to worry about Potter seeing a poison necklace or two. He's soft, too soft for his own good some may say but a stupid Griffindork like Potter won't see even his worst enemy be punished when they were persecuted against. They're idiots, all of them, thinking the world is either black or white; there is no grey in a Griffindor's world and we, as Slytherins can play on that. Don't you see Lucius? The world is not rid of us." She was practically laughing as she spoke her last words.

Laughing as she reminisced on their early days together as a couple. The fact Lucius' father had concerns about their relationship due to Narcissa not being one to sit and theorise and contribute to books and academia - as all good Malfoy's did. Her laughing became almost uncontrollable as tears slide down her face because she was laughing so hard. "I'm sorry Lucius, I really am." She managed to choke out between fits of hysterical laughter, as her husband plainly stared at her without comprehension of what she found so funny. Finally, Narcissa regained some composure, putting on a haughty face of superiority and declaring "It appears, dear Lucius that you have been well and truly out Malfoy'ed by a Black."

Lucius leaned closer to his wife once he realised that she was not being malicious, her theory was indeed the work of a Malfoy. A slight smile danced upon his pale features as he silently held his wife close. They had married young but had not once had a real argument, nothing that hadn't been resolved before bedtime. She had simply been a perfect wife; loving, caring, respectful and never resentful. Yet, now she should be fuming; he knew that he was a disgrace. "I always said you'd make a good Malfoy, dear." Lucius' smile was only faint and was hiding behind all the other swirling emotions running through his mind. "Narcy, I love you, dear."

"I know and I love you too." Narcissa smiled and gently kissed Lucius' forehead as he fell to sleep in her arms, still dressed, still lying on top of the bed covers. Sighing, Narcissa withdrew her wand and pointed it at the figure of her sleeping husband. Slowly and carefully she cast various charms to undress him, brush his increasingly dishevelled looking pale blonde hair and place him underneath the soft silk quilt covers. Noticing that Lucius had seemed to visibly relax upon her actions, Narcissa felt pleased with herself and undressed before climbing into bed. She was not tired nor had she had so much to drink that the sleep inducing effects of drinking far too much alcohol would kick in but she felt cold and their bed was warm.

Within a few hours, Narcissa began to notice Lucius stirring from his peaceful sleep and summoned a few potions that would do him the world of good. Usually, she didn't approved of mood altering potions but this was exceptional circumstances and if a mild calming draught would stop her husband from sinking to the depths of despair, she'd try it. What saddened her the most was how Lucius never questioned what the potions were or the strength of potion she was using. Instead, he simply drank the three potions she had gave him; one being a calming draught, another being a ruby red potion to relive him from the symptoms of a hangover and the last a painkilling potion to help with the lasting injuries the Dark Lord had given him.

"You haven't wasted your day here with me have you, dear?" The first words Lucius spoke were a little croaky but at least he sounded sober, the slurring had all but disappeared from his aristocratic tones.

"Yes I've been here." Narcissa's voice was slightly less indulgent of her husband's depressive wallow. In the time he'd been sleeping, she had decided that for them to survive the Dark Lord's reign, Lucius needed to toughen up and become more like the haughty, disdainful man that he once was. "Now we must get ready for dinner, Lucius. I've told Draco I will not accept anything but him dressed his best for dinner and I expect you will no doubt be dressed appropriately as well." She smirked, Lucius had always been one to dress his best, no matter the occasion.

Almost instantly feeling better after taking the potions; Lucius pulled his wife close, kissing her passionately almost seemingly forgetting his worries as she opened her lips for him as his tongue lightly brushed against hers and he, almost instantly, deepened the kiss. She tasted of her favourite berry tea and faintly of chocolate. However, Narcissa abruptly pulled away and Lucius' eyes narrowed in contempt - he could stay there forever, kissing the one woman that he had promised to love forevermore.

"Sorry Lucius but brandy, cigars and essence of calming draught really doesn't do it for me!" She sniggered pushing her husband away. "Besides, we ought to be getting ready for dinner." She smirked superciliously and simultaneously got up out of bed and began wondering to the other side of their vast bedroom to brush her hair. In reality she had always enjoyed the teasing the man who seemingly always got what he wanted.

"I'm rather offended you've rejected my affection." Lucius drawled whilst observing his wife's perfect figure, he really was a lucky man to have such a beautiful woman. Beautiful, intelligent, witty and his, Lucius smirked to himself as he watched Narcissa brush her long honey blonde hair before proceeding to get out of bed himself. The potions his wife had given him had done him the world of good; the calming draught had relaxed him almost in an instant, so much so that for the first time in over a year he felt almost himself again. However, his former self had often scoffed at witches and wizards whom had needed potions, such as the calming draught, to get through the day. Lucius had always thought them either weak or just plain stupid as to take addictive potions. Now though, none of that mattered as he pranced over to his wife, a smug smile dancing on his lips. "You know as well as I do; nobody denies me, my dear. Not even you." Lucius whispered in Narcissa's ear.

His words sent a chill down Narcissa's spine and she gasped as her husband pinned her up against the wall of their bedroom. Her eyes were widened in curiosity as Lucius kissed her so passionately one couldn't help but wonder if his life depended on it. Slowly, Narcissa relaxed pulling her husband closer and kissing him back before chastely pushing Lucius away and smirking at him "And you know as well as I do, nobody ever takes advantage of me before dinner and that includes you, Lucius Malfoy." She resumed brushing her hair in silence.

Disappointed that his endeavours in trying to seduce his wife had come to nothing, Lucius made his way to the en-suite bathroom only to discover his current appearance. With great horror, he stared at his haggard features in the massive gold gilt mirror hung before him. Lucius' usually immaculate light blonde hair looked unkempt and longer than it normally did, his eyes were sunken and his lower lids had dark circles marring his perfectly pale skin tone. Even Lucius' perfect posture had suffered; with his shoulders slightly slouching and head lowered from it's usual lofty high position looking down on others. Instantly, he stood straight and wished for the millionth time that he had his wand. However, that was not to be and his looks were nothing that couldn't be improved upon by a hot shower, a shave and some carefully applied potions.

As Lucius emerged from the bathroom he noticed that Narcissa was already dressed in evening attire ready for dinner. His wife looked exquisite in a champagne gold knee length corseted dress with a pencil skirt. It was almost too daring for a witch to wear as usually witches were much more conservative with their clothes than their muggle counterparts but this was Narcissa and Lucius knew his wife looked good in almost anything. He smirked admiring just how the dress accented Narcissa's perfect hourglass figure. "I've not seen this number before?" Lucius questioned with a slight mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I had Twilfitt's make it up, not so long ago." She smiled "That old prude Malkin refused to make me such an item." She laughed whilst watching her husband pick out a champagne gold waistcoat and cravat tie which matched her dress perfectly. "Not that I'd give her my business; she's alright for school robes and the like but dress clothes, hopeless. Anyway I thought you'd like it." She smirked at the look on her husband's face. Whilst he liked the world to think of him as a cold and distant man, with Narcissa he had always been anything but.

Lucius couldn't help but feel slightly aroused whilst observing his wife's beauty in only a white bath robe. However, dinner was to be served soon and it would not be prudent to hold Draco up lest he asked after his parents. "Hmmm I do like it very much and I'll enjoy relieving you of such restrictive clothing later. May I borrow your wand, dear?" Finally, he had the courage to ask Narcissa f he may borrow her wand, since the Dark Lord had took his Lucius had not performed so much as a simple spell.

"Of course, darling. I thought you'd never ask!" Narcissa held out her wand, whilst making an observation "Our wands are similar; same core, similar wood, less than two inches difference in length. I always hated the similarity being pointed out in school; that old potions master Slughorn always used to tell me that the only other student with a wand larger than 15 inches was you and if I had more patience I could match your ability in potions. Honestly, how highly he spoke of you, anyone would have thought you were paying him." She shook her head laughing softly, remembering how in happier times she and Bella used to make jokes as sisters about the fact that Lucius' wand matched his over inflated ego.

Taking Narcissa's 16 3/4" wand in to his own hand's Lucius inspected the highly decorative Cedar wood wand. It was certainly very pretty, perhaps even more so than his own wand. Simply swishing the wand from side to side provoked beautiful gold and silver sparks from the tip and it was obvious that the wand suited Lucius, almost as much as the one he had owned for over thirty years. "I merely listened. Had you done the same and not been too busy hexing as many Griffindors under the tables as you could, perhaps your own potions would be passable." Lucius scalded his wife, smirking to himself as he made his hair just as it was before Azkaban and the Dark Lord had got their hands on it.

Finally dressed in a midnight blue suit with the champagne gold waistcoat and cravat tie, Lucius, for the first time since his return, looked just like the man he had once been. There was not a hint of stubble on his chin and not one hair was out of place as he handed his wife's wand back.

Arm in arm the Malfoy couple made their way to the smaller dining hall to meet their son. Finding themselves first to arrive, Lucius seated Narcissa at the table before seating himself to his wife's left at the head of the table.

Meanwhile, Draco had been playing on his broomstick all afternoon and had still not got dressed for dinner, nor was he going to. He was filthy and covered in mud and dirt from the gardens as it had been raining heavily. Knowing his parents would be furious, Draco smirked to himself. His father had always been obsessed by good aesthetic and had never let his son so much as climb a tree unless it was bright and sunny outside, so as not to dirty Draco's immaculate clothes. Strolling into the Manor, Draco observed that he was already late for dinner and made his way to the smaller dining room; still dressed in his filthy Quidditch clothes.

"Good evening Mother, Father." Draco drawled in his best tones. When he spoke in this way, he sounded just like the way Lucius had always wanted his boy to sound.

Without looking around to see the state Draco was in; Narcissa answered her son first. "Good evening Draco, you are late, sit." She spoke in slightly clipped tones but without any malice, until she spun around upon hearing Lucius' voice roar.

"How dare you come to dinner dressed like that? In fact how dare you go out into the grounds when it is raining. You know the rules; the rules that you are to obey in my house." By this point, Lucius had stood from his chair and was making his way over to where Draco was stood. His eye's were narrowed furiously and as he marched over to his son, he looked like he was about to hit him. "Don't you even think you are too old to get a clip round the ear, boy."

Draco sneered whilst standing as tall as was possible; at full height he was about an inch taller than his father. "And you ought to be thankful your father is dead. Grandfather told me he often had to give you a dozen lashings in the dungeon. I bet he's sorely disappointed to find out you've become such a disgrace but I imagine he's hardly surprised." At that, Draco pushed his father to one side and sat at the table, across from his mother.

Lucius stood in the middle of the dining room, humiliated. Ashamed that his father had told Draco about his youthful misdemeanours and the punishments that often followed them. His now immaculate appearance contrasted so greatly with his son's scruffy robes that Lucius felt his anger rise to levels that he almost considered using one of his own father's punishments on Draco. However, he knew that he could never hurt his son in the way his father had done to him.


	8. Transfiguration for the Deluded

**Thank you so much for such lovely reviews :) I always try to take comments on board.**

After a few moments of Lucius being stood in the middle of the dining hall, Narcissa's head was spinning; she simply didn't know what to do to handle the current situation. On one hand she wanted to send her, quite literally, filthy son to bed without eating but on the other hand she knew that he was just a confused seventeen year old boy. She knew that unless she resolved the situation quickly her husband was liable to either fly off the handle or become extremely depressed and at this moment in time she was unsure as to which was worse.

"Draco, please apologise to your father." She gave Draco a pointed look over the table and smiled somewhat sinisterly at her son. "Lucius, sit down our starter will be arriving at any moment and I'm sure you'd like to taste the wine." Narcissa smiled at her husband genuinely. She knew that he must be extremely upset by Draco's behaviour; Lucius always had been far too sensitive to their son's spite. She had always put it down to her husband growing up as an only child, he had never realised just how spiteful other children could be in the home.

Draco rolled his eyes before facing his father who was stood helplessly in the middle of the room. He seemed lost despite looking better than Draco had seen his since he had been locked in Azkaban. "Sorry, father." He spoke quietly but his voice was clear and audible. However, as his mother mentioned the wine that was sat on the table; Draco maliciously muttered "I bet he will." Smirking to himself that neither of his parents had heard his latest quip, Draco looked his mother in the eyes. "Mother, perhaps you might like to transfigure my robes, I hardly have time to get changed."

"If you insist." Narcissa drew her wand and transfigured Draco's dirty Quidditch robes into a beautiful dress suit, much like what Lucius was wearing. However, the suit was charcoal and the waistcoat and cravat tie were a contrasting royal blue.

Slowly, Lucius silently made his way over to the table, staring into Draco's eyes, almost daring his son to say something else to him. Taking his seat at the head of the table, the ornate chair scraped crudely along the heavy oak flooring beneath it as Lucius sat closer to the table. He was evidently not happy with his current situation. However, he remained silent as the elf invited him to taste the wine, merely just inclining his glass and dramatically swirling the red coloured liquid around the bowl of the wine glass before inhaling deeply and taking a moment to distinguish the wine's unique aromas. Either that or he was anticipating just how drunk he would get this evening on the very wine sat in front of him. Slowly, Lucius tipped the glass towards his lips and took a short sip of the wine, taking a moment to swirl the liquid around his palate, appreciating the fruity taste before swallowing and declaring the wine as being fit to drink.

The starter and main course passed without hardly any conversation and the atmosphere was still awkward. Lucius spent his time between eating sneering at his son and Draco was doing exactly the same towards his father. Narcissa could hardly hide the smirk on her face as she watched the father and son who looked so alike scowling at one and other. She could see both sides of the current issue. Much to her disappointment, Lucius had acted disgracefully since his return home. However, he had been through such a lot that Narcissa felt she hardly knew her husband anymore; he had gone from being a strong and dependable head of the family to being a needy drunk in only just over a year.

In the background a piece that Narcissa could hardly recognise was playing, she presumed it to be written in the impressionist period and it captured her imagination more so than music usually did. "Who composed this?" Narcissa enquired to her husband, the talented musician.

"Scriabin. It's his tenth piano sonata described as a sonata of insects. Can you hear them, dear? Dragonflies and honey bees and butterflies and blue bottles; beautiful colours flying around the flower gardens. There are no mosquitoes or flying ants or dung beetles or parasitic flies. Those things do not exist, not for the purpose of this piece." Lucius smiled whilst waiting for his dessert course to arrive, he was once again swirling the now half empty glass of wine in his hand and dramatically talking about the music that had been written by an interesting early twentieth century composer. "Scriabin, very interesting fellow. Russian. Reckoned to have had synesthesia. Although, it is now debated in academic circles. Now, Draco tell me what synesthesia is?" Lucius drawled. This was the first time since the previous incident that Lucius had spoken to his son since the incident earlier. Whilst awaiting his son's reply, Lucius began to direct the imaginary musician in his mind.

The wine glass had been moved into his left hand and his right hand was shaping the music, something akin to what a conductor of an orchestra would do. However, he was certainly not beating out time, he was shaping expression, adding expression to the pre-recorded piece in his own mind. Before he knew it, Lucius had placed the wine glass down onto the dark mahogany wood and was completely lost within the piece of music. To him, what seemed to his family as pointless arm waving was important. As far as Lucius was concerned he was in control, feeling almost drunk on power as he directed the imaginary musician in his own mind, as he imperiously carved his own take on the composer's intentions. Lucius could hear every extra crescendo, every extra mark of expression. The articulation and dynamics were Lucius' own, only the notes on the page now belonged to Scriabin. In Lucius' mind his was finally away of the evil lurking within, he was free; if only for a few seconds, before Draco harshly cut in.

"I don't care what syneswhatever is or what it means. Nor do I give a damn about Scriabin. Maybe if you bothered to actually be involved in things what matter instead of locking yourself away in that stupid piano room, you'd be in a better place, father." Draco spat before resuming his rant. "Grandfather always said you were a disappointment for your artistic temperament. In fact Grandfather told me all about you." Draco proceeded to sneer at his father and his voice took on a deep mocking tone as he recalled his grandfather's words. "'Lucius always has took things to extremes. I employed a music teacher to teach him a few pieces on the piano, you know to impress a few friends at the Ministry. Next thing the boy has aspirations to become some sort of concert pianist. Four hours a day, holed up in that room, yet Hogwarts hardly got a look in. Transfiguration - Dreadful, Charms - Poor, Care of Magical Creatures - Troll level I believe but never worry Headmaster, my son can play any Beethoven Sonata you wish', sound familiar?" Draco's sneering supercilious voice took over the room, he was boring his bright blue eyes into Lucius', as he spoke, mocking him. "You see father, I don't care whether F-Sharp and G-Flat are the same note in Western tonal music. I don't care about Bach's Toccata's and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. I don't give a damn about individuals too stupid to do anything else but put black dots onto white parchment and make noise out of things other than their mouths. If you'd put your effort into serving the Dark Lord rather than learning about Mr. Scriabin who is deluded to think he can see dragonflies and butterflies coming out of the lid of the piano, perhaps we wouldn't all be in the sorry state we are in now." By now Draco's voice had raised slightly, he was not shouting but was close to it. "And more fool you if you too hallucinate over some precisely placed dots and some keys pressed. You're even more crazy than I first thought. No wonder Grandfather tried to beat it out of you!"

Lucius sat silently shocked as he listened to Draco's rant. However, the entrancing music was still taking up a great deal of his mind as Draco whined and mocked him Lucius thought about the next phrase of music, blocking his son's taunts out of his mind. He knew the piece, he had even played it before. Although no matter how much he tried to block out Draco's insults they were still there. The son sat before him telling his own father that he was good for nothing, that he should have been a better servant to the Dark Lord. His own son reciting his own father's words; the man who Lucius had respected but feared in equal quantities and never quite made peace with even as a man. At that, Lucius didn't know whether to scream at his son or whether to find a quiet corner and cry, such was his conflict in emotion.

The busy music swirled; trills, turns ornament after ornament. Dragonflies, honey bees, butterflies and blue bottles all flying around a beautiful rose garden all collecting their sticky sweet nectar to take back to their families. Warm sunny day, nothing in the world to go wrong; a perfect day one may say. That was the scene Lucius saw as he listened to the music and then he looked towards his family, horrified.

They were not perfect, the world outside the music room was not perfect and even enclosed within those walls with only his music and piano, life was not perfect. Notes were missed, expression was not always correctly observed, chords were played wrong, a missed dynamic, a slip of just one finger made life imperfect. This alone made Lucius feel agitated, he was not always even in control of the things he loved the most; his family, his music, the influx of dirty blood in the Wizarding world. Did blood even matter anymore; there always had been intelligent Mudbloods and to Lucius it had never been a question of intelligence, it was more imperative that Muggles did not find out about their world lest they would hunt Witches and Wizards like they once had.

All manner of emotions were swirling within Lucius' mind, he was as mixed up as the many flavours in the red wine that he had been swirling before drinking earlier. Before he could control himself, Lucius himself began to wail "None of this is my fault. Do you think I asked to be blessed with an artistic temperament as you put it, Draco? I have a short fuse, a short temper if you will. I feel things that a rational scientific mind could never even dream of. The ecstasy of winning, the lust for power and the depressive wallow of failure are all very real to me. More real to me than to someone without an artistic bone in their body." Lucius' voice by now had become much more even, he had turning into Lucius Malfoy, the aristocratic diplomat "I have to control and manipulate things to be as I want them to be, I am compelled to just like I'm compelled to interpret carefully placed dots on parchment. Whilst I did not choose to be who I am, until recently I embraced it." Lucius' almost dreamlike voice changed into a sinister drawl as he began to address his son "You are no better, Draco for you are my son; my handsome and charming son who is more like me than he could possibly wish to be. My young son who cannot murder another human being because feelings of guilt would feed on his very soul. The son I want to protect from harm and guide away from danger, who doesn't really want me to be some heartless bastard but has misplaced anger towards me, which is understandable at your difficult age and in our difficult circumstances." Lucius reasoned Draco's behaviour and once again picked the wine glass up and began to swirl the contents before drinking the glass dry.

At this, Draco did not know what to say. He had expected his father to fly off the handle, to lose his temper and roar at his son to go to bed. Though the strange character analysis that his father had calmly talked of rang true with Draco, as much as he loathed to admit it.

He too suffered from the temper tantrums, the need to control, the thirst for power and the cowardice, if you could call not being able to murder another that. He knew that his father had not been a cold blooded killer either, that night on the Astronomy Tower, when his aunt had maliciously sneered that he 'hadn't got it in him, just like his father'. After that, Draco wanted to do it, he wanted to prove that not only was he worthy of his father's respect, he was beyond it. He wanted to prove that the son was better than the father and that Lucius was purely the warm up in comparison to him; Draco Malfoy. However, as much as he wanted to prove himself he could just not kill a helpless old man. Even if that helpless old man was the worst thing that had ever happened to Hogwarts, even if that man was nothing but a bumbling Griffindork, Draco Malfoy could not murder him. Just like his failure of a father; Draco was not a killer. At that he began to open up to his family about what the Dark Lord had spoken to him earlier in that day. "The Dark Lord wishes to train me, as a warrior. He said I could be the greatest, his most favoured, even above my aunt Bellatrix but I can't. I can't do it. I'm not a killer." Draco stuttered his last words and hot, fat tears were beginning to fall down his pale cheeks. "I'm sorry father, you're right about me. I'm sorry for the things I said. I'm sorry for what I just said. Grandfather also told me on his deathbed that he loved you more than the desert loves the rain but he struggled to understand you at times. He told me to tell you but I never did, not until now." Draco looked towards his father who had that lost look in his pale eyes. He quickly looked away, not wanting his father to see that he sympathised with him.

Many portraits by now were looking down on the family below. One such portrait was that of Abraxas Malfoy, Lucius' father who had brought him up from a young age following Lucius' mother's death. He was looking at his own son and slightly smiling, almost trying to will his son to be strong for his own family.

Lucius however, would have never noticed this for he was looking towards his own son, trying to fight the impending flood of tears. Blinking his pale blue-grey eyes Lucius took his son's hand in his own. "I don't want you to be a murderer. That way the devil cannot take your soul; you can still be pure and true. Draco, I'd rather die under the Dark Lord's regime than see you be taken as a prisoner by the devil himself, slowly consuming your body and soul with guilt and regret." As he spoke the words, Lucius regained a little of his composure, he was no longer fighting not to cry in front of his teenage son, he felt a little of his control back as he sanely spoke to Draco.

Narcissa, more than anybody understood just how much Lucius feared death; up until the Dark Lord had risen, Lucius had brewed and taken potions to extend his life by as many years as were magically possible. He hated every frown line and smile line that had began to appear on his perfect skin and she knew that her husband had real issues relating to aging and ultimately death. So, she knew that his heartfelt words to their son had been something that was really difficult for Lucius to say. "Draco, you must understand your father has been through a lot recently, he's perhaps not always himself but we'll get through this as a family and I can assure you that we will be alright. Anyway, you'll be back in Hogwarts soon enough; I trust you have been revising and not just been out playing Quidditch? Whilst your father may have received some awful OWL results, his NEWT's were exemplary." Narcissa smiled softly towards her son and took his hand in hers before wiping his tears away.

Rolling his eyes, Draco stared at his mother. He knew that his father's NEWT results were one of the best Hogwarts had seen in recent years; the very mention of it filled Draco with dread that he could not compare academically to the current Malfoy patriarch. "What about your NEWT's mother?" He was genuinely curious as to his mother's school marks as he had recently discovered she was very good with a wand but already knew that she was not the word smith that his father was.

"Well I got O's in Transfiguration, Arithmancy and Applications of the Dark Arts as it was called in those days. I also did Charms which I got Exceeds Expectations for. After school, your father and I got married and before I had you, I studied Transfiguration under Professor MacGonagall." Narcissa's sickly sweet smile remained as she felt amused seeing her son so shocked. She had loved most of the subjects Lucius had hated throughout school.

"I'm rubbish at Transfiguration." Draco whined "My last choice is between Transfiguration and History. I hate History; it's boring but it's easier than Transfiguration. I wish I was good at it, mum."

"Wand out. Look at the empty glass beside your father, think of something useful that it could become. Concentrate. Hard. Do not think about not being able to. Do not think about the latest gossip or Quidditch or anything but the item you need. Yes need, Draco not want. Say the incantation with a heavy swish of the wand. You are aiming for perfection first time. You aren't aiming to practise nor are you aiming for a draft you can improve upon." At this she looked towards Lucius, knowing that those had been his mistakes in the practical subjects. She knew he saw the process of magic much like he saw the process of playing the piano; playing a rough run through with mistakes was OK first time around as you could iron all your mistakes out with practise. No wonder he excelled in Potions.

"Scribbifors" Draco powerfully said the incantation whilst he mentally placed the antique cut crystal glass turning into the most beautiful peacock feathered quill. Before now he had managed to Transfigure items but only to the most basic of items. The last quill he had conjured had been very plain and grey. However, this time, to his astonishment the quill was a perfect, beautiful blue peacock feather – just as he had imagined in his mind. "Wow. I'm picking Transfiguration! This is so much cooler than History."

Upon admiring his son's work, Lucius smiled slightly; pleased that his boy had found a new skill and a new respect for his mother. Not once had he gave his son the impression that the boy's mother was not an intelligent witch but Draco had always come to him for everything and Lucius' own pride had stopped him from telling the young boy to speak to his mother about it. "History is a very important subject, Draco. The more we learn about our past, the better we can hope to make our future. May I remind you that I studied History and Politics under the supervision of our current Minister for Magic." Lucius smirked at his wife, if she was going to name drop one of the greatest living Conjurers that the Wizarding world had to offer, he was going to impress the impressionable teenager with tales of true greatness about people who held real power within the country.

"Sorry father but Transfiguration is far more useful than being able to debate about whether or not the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct is now outdated due to advancements in Potions." Draco smiled at his father who was one of very few students who could stand Binn's lectures and some even said Lucius Malfoy had actually enjoyed them.

"I beg to differ, Draco. Now, please turn my glass back to a glass." Lucius held the quill up with a mock look of annoyance flashing across his features.

Both Narcissa and Draco just laughed.t


	9. Game for a Laugh

**Thank you all for such wonderful reviews! Please keep them coming, they keep this story alive for me and help me to carry on writing, even when I am finding it difficult. This chapter has been quite hard for me to complete, so apologies for how long is has taken me to write it. The next one will involve Lucius visiting the prisoner's in his home and Potter's visit to Malfoy Manor ...**

Lucius had never been so badly punished by the Dark Lord as he had been in the last few days: all he knew was that his wand had failed the madman and that he was being held responsible. Never had the Cruciatus curse been so vehemently used against him as it was now. Each day, Lucius was brought to the brink of permanent insanity and back. The curse had taken an awful toll on his already fragile state meaning he had to spend the majority of his time in bed recovering, only to be hit by the next bout the next day.

"Pl-please my Lord, I can't take much more of this." His voice was barely a whisper and the air of superiority it once carried had long been replaced with a whimper of pure terror. Lucius was openly sobbing in front of his Master and the other Death Eaters, he did not dare look to his right where his wife and son were stood lest he did something that the Dark Lord took an even greater dislike to.

"I will decide what you can and cannot take more of, Lucius." Sneering, the Dark Lord beckoned Narcissa over to him.

Over the past few days Narcissa had become more and more fearful for her husband. He had not so much as said a wrong word to the Dark Lord but their master was punishing Lucius more frequently and much harsher than she had ever seen him punish one of 'his own'. The reprieves were so short that she often spent the evening reading to her increasingly weak husband whilst he sipped brandy and ate some fine chocolates; no longer did she deny him anything.

For the first time, she was frightened that the Dark Lord would take her husband's life. The selfish side of her decided she'd rather have him living as an insane zombie ruined by the Cruciatus curse than for the Dark Lord to murder him. However, she knew in reality that death would be a much kinder proposition than the other prospect. Now she had to be strong, for Lucius. "My Lord?" Narcissa inclined her head speaking softly, her voice too was now laced with fear.

"Narcissa Malfoy or have you renounced your married name in shame?" Voldemort mocked, knowing that even after all these years the Malfoy couple were still hopelessly in love. "Anyhow, you are still legally married to this disgrace." He waved his hand towards Lucius, smirking. "It's a pity that he is still my chief financier, otherwise I'd take great pleasure in destroying what is left of him; I believe the Longbottoms are probably getting a little lonely in St. Mungo's are they not Bellatrix?"

Bellatrix nodded her head. "Yes my Lord." She cackled, hoping to get a little of the action.

Upon the mention of Neville's parents Lucius' head jerked up towards his wife, he was so terribly afraid of what was going to happen next. Not only did the Dark Lord cast the Cruciatus on him, he also made Lucius relive the worst moments in his life: the grief for lost loved ones hit him the hardest and the Dark Lord knew it.

He had always felt guilty about the Longbottoms, what Bellatrix did to the pureblood couple with a son the same age as Lucius' own was abhorrent and being affiliated with the organisation that had caused so much grief had made Lucius feel extremely guilt ridden over the years. Not that anyone was to know Lucius' weaknesses, others presumed him to not have a conscience at all. He'd joined Voldemort as a foolish young man expecting to help to create a better society for the pureblood wizarding race. However, he learnt quickly that Dark Lord's idea of politics was not what Lucius had expected and yet out of fear he played along, just as he still tried to even though he knew it was wrong. Nobody crossed Lord Voldemort.

"I have not renounced my married name nor my marriage, my Lord. It is unbecoming for a pureblood witch not to stand by her husband through the good and the not so good times, as I am sure you know, my Lord. I do, of course, presume that your aims and my aims are the same: to rid our world of filth." Narcissa smiled sickly sweetly at the Dark Lord. She was fearful of the man but couldn't stand for him treating her husband so cruelly. It was her duty, as a wife, to honour and defend Lucius to the best of her abilities.

"I might make you into a loyal servant yet, Narcissa." Voldemort's twisted smile turned into a knowing look at Narcissa Malfoy. It had not escaped his notice that she had still not been marked; despite no longer being pregnant. "It is my belief that you are not with child at the moment. Of course our aims are the same but I have to question if yours and my aims are the same as your husband's? He had constantly failed me so many times that I now question his motives and whether or not he is in fact a traitor."

"And I can assure you, my Lord that Lucius is not a traitor. Whilst my husband is a clever man, he has not one ounce of common sense; Lucius struggles with many basic tasks, whilst he can plan missions right down to the minute he will fail you out in the field as you have found. Every war needs a variety of roles to be completed by it's soldiers." Narcissa paused to quickly gather her thoughts. She knew that the speech would either work or backfire on both her and her husband. Thankfully, the Dark Lord had largely left Draco alone over these past few days. "What I mean is you have some excellent foot soldiers, my Lord; in Bella, Dolohov, the Carrows. You would not send Bella, for example, to physically intimidate opponents without her wand like you do Greyback. Each of us has a purpose: Lucius can be extremely dense were practical subjects are involved but he's a fantastic theorist and planner. He's a politician, my Lord and once you take victory you'll need politicians like Lucius." Hoping against all hope that she had managed to trick the Dark Lord once more, Narcissa prayed her suspicions were right about the self styled Lord.

"So well argued Narcissa, I should perhaps wonder if you are really the politician? Anyhow you are dismissed as of now, all of you." The Dark Lord left in a black swish of robes.

Lucius however was still knelt on the floor, staring at his wife whilst tears slid down his pale cheeks. The Dark Lord had today made Lucius relive the death of his mother, something which he had tried to keep hidden away for many years. Having only just turned thirteen years of age when the tragic accident happened he had been at a very fragile age to lose a parent, let alone a parent who was a fantastic friend to a very lonely boy. Whilst Lucius had been popular at school, he had no close friends; not once did he receive an owl over the summer and having no siblings, Lucius relied on his parents for company.

It was not Narcissa but a confused and distraught Draco who helped his father to his feet. Having been made to suffer the Cruciatus curse once for a matter of seconds, Draco knew that his father must be suffering from the curse but wondered why it was taking him so long to emotionally recover. He gently raised Lucius' head which was trying to look towards the floor for his own eyes to meet his father's watery pale ones. "Dad, what's happened to you? Why can't you be strong anymore?" Draco's words were innocent and childlike as he led his father to sit by one of the many open fires in the Manor.

Even though the fire was roaring, Lucius was cold and felt like the weight of the world was crushing him mercilessly; at least now he had regained a little composure but even that no longer mattered. Realising he had not answered his son's question, he contemplated a response; how could anyone be strong in his position? Lucius wondered. Shifting slightly uncomfortably in his seat he turned slightly towards his son. However, their eyes did not meet as Lucius' were still staring at the floor. "Life has happened to me. Not my sheltered, privileged, well guarded life but the harsh realities that I hope against all hope that you'll never have to experience, Draco. He does not just physically maim, he mentally tortures me as well. He makes me relive the most horrible moments of my life, whilst I beg him to save me from death. I'll never be strong again even if he can't do anything to me." Once again, Lucius' voice cracked with emotion sounding so pitiful and weak. It was not the voice anyone was used to hearing from Lucius, apart from his wife.

Narcissa had seen Lucius through many low points in his life but never anything like this. However, unlike their son, she at least knew that the persona he fabricated for the public eye was far from his real personality. She knew that whilst Lucius didn't have any problem deceiving and lying to others; he had a conscience were violence was involved, especially if it involved children. Smiling at her son, Narcissa knew that he must be terribly confused as Lucius had often put on an act to him as well. "Draco, dear, your father is going through a terrible stage in his life. He isn't the unstoppable force that he professes to be in public." To comfort her son, Narcissa put her arm around him and pulled him close to her. "We'll get through this together, as a family." She assured.

Over the next few hours Lucius sat peacefully by the fireside, listening to some of his favourite pieces of music, alone. Narcissa had took their son to the grounds; no doubt to play Quidditch with Draco. Smiling to himself, Lucius remembered precious moments spent with his own mother. She too was a musician; a professional standard violinist that had allowed a clunky childhood Lucius to accompany the beautiful sonatas that she played but that was taken away from him far too early. Before he knew it, he found himself at forty-three years of age wallowing in self pity: if only his mother could hear him play the piano now and if only she had been there to guide him from the evil he was all too easily persuaded to join as a foolish teenager. As if by magic; Lucius' mother's portrait appeared in the frame hanging on the opposite wall of the drawing room.

Filling the entire room was the calm and serene voice of Lucius' mother "I know you play beautifully, I listen to you play every day, Lucius and I'm so proud. As for getting involved with the wrong crowd – I always told you to not be so quick as to join others in political activism but you were too young to understand." Her almost identical blue-grey eyes sparkled in the painting, she was obviously an intellectual witch and was the one Lucius had inherited most of his features from. "You always were magically able but perhaps not in the traditional sense of the word and it always seemed to bother you. That, of course, was your father's fault. Constantly comparing you to that young Miss Black in Transfiguration, I'll never forgive him for that – he tried to push you in the same direction as him, yet you always took after me. Being adept in the Arts is not a bad thing Lucius, talking one's way out of trouble is much better than duelling as you later found out. Though I'm not proud of the fact you joined the Dark Lord and had I been alive, I could have told you enough about that man to dissuade you. However, your performance in court after was all the proof I needed that words go further than foolish wand waving." At that the aristocratic looking portrait winked cheekily at her son.

Lucius considered his mother's words. She had always been a wise witch and had never humiliated him as his father had done, choosing instead to encourage him in what he had been good at. However, it was rare that her portrait spoke. Usually, she took her place beside Lucius' father's portrait in the grand entrance hall of Malfoy Manor. Whilst she was a strong witch, she had been often reminded of her place in the family and her husband hadn't always been a kind man to her as he never loved her in the way he loved Narcissa. Therefore, she remained in Abraxas' shadow; rarely speaking unless spoken to, just as his father had liked it. Lucius remembered just how much he had hated his father at times and yet he knew that the man had only tried to do his best by his family, in the only way he knew. "Mother, how did you know what I was thinking?" He asked tentatively. In truth, he felt as if at any moment he'd lose his dignity once more by sobbing in front of his mother's portrait and asking tearfully why God had to take her so suddenly.

"A woman's intuition, Lucius." Her perfect received pronunciation cut through the cold air before she smirked at her only child. "I'm sure somewhere deep within the lovely Miss Black has some too." Her voice was laced with harsh sarcasm before she seemed to reconsider her bitterness. "Don't listen to me; I'm just bitter that a girl has stolen my little boy's heart." The pale portrait's smug smirk was replaced with an amused one. "Please, take heed of her words: everything will be alright. I suspect the world will have to deal with you for a good while longer." She chuckled at Lucius' mock scowl at the reference to his own mortality.

Tears had begun to involuntary form in Lucius' eyes as his mother's words sunk in and she silently disappeared as quickly as she had arrived. "Because only the good die young." Lucius whispered to himself as in his mind he was transported back thirty-two years.

The sights, sounds and smells of Diagon Alley had always been intoxicating but for a young boy there with his first letter from Hogwarts, Diagon Alley was positively euphoric. It was not as if Lucius had not visited the famous high street before but today he was here for his own purpose and not for some shady dealing with his father.

"Wand, books then school robes – I do hope I'm in Slytherin, mother! Oh then a trip to the quill shop and the Quidditch shop and the music shop. Does Hogwarts have a piano as nice as ours, mother?" Lucius' excited and very animated child voice was whining about the fact that first years couldn't take brooms to Hogwarts so his mother would have to compensate him by buying an eagle feather quill and some new music; that was until he managed to bump into an older looking boy with red hair and scruffy robes. "Do you go to Hogwarts?" Was all Lucius said, hardly even noticing how poverty stricken the other boy looked.

"I apologise for my son's behaviour. Lucius, what do you have to say to" Abruptly, his mother stopped talking and a sneer took over her usually beautiful features. "Weasley." Her voice was tense. "Come Lucius we must get to Ollivander's." Before Lucius had a chance to apologise or ask any further questions his mother had dragged him in the opposite direction. That was the first time Lucius had laid eyes upon Arthur Weasley.

Being quickly transported back to reality: Lucius started to hear voices descending on his only place of sanctuary. "Ah there you are Malfoy, we've been searching for you since we got back from our mission." The familiar voice of Goyle wafted through the cold air.

"Have you really?" Sneered Lucius as he looked up to face the ugly pair. The duo had been of some use to physically intimidate others but were of no use to him now, not since he lost his authority.

"Bloody hell Malfoy, what's happened to you? They all say Azkaban is bad but I didn't realise it was that bad." Crabbe sniggered whilst looking around the room, noticing that the usually immaculate house was looking slightly shabby, with many of the family heirlooms covered with a thick layer of dust.

"Haha, very funny Crabbe. What do you want?"

At this the pair seemed to get rather angry, pacing towards Lucius with a look of malice etched onto both of their faces. However, it was Crabbe who spoke first. "The Dark Lord is insane and you always said you wouldn't let it get this far, Malfoy." His voice was cold and menacing, there wasn't any hint of friendship.

Goyle proceeded to finish off the sentence. "You've betrayed us and now he's trying to involve our children. You better stop this or Voldemort is the last person you ought to be worrying about."

Before Lucius knew it, he had involuntarily flinched at Goyle using the word Voldemort but he quickly recovered his composure and a look of cold superiority was plastered all over his pale features. "Don't be ridiculous. You both knew the risks when you joined. In fact, if I remember rightly, it was you two who decided to join first." Lucius scowled before mocking Crabbe's thick voice "Count Malfoy in. Malfoy's always up for a laugh." Lucius rolled his eyes before proceeding. "Oh yes, Malfoy is always up for the laugh that is spending a year in a hell hole prison only to return home to find he is wandless and his son is paying the ultimate sacrifice. Don't you two even dare to come to me with your woes." By now Lucius was almost shouting. He knew that he had lost every ounce of his self control, something which Lucius had always prided himself on. As he spoke, he realised that he would never hold a position of authority ever again, not even within his own home.


End file.
